Light guides are used not only for telecommunications, to transmit data signals over long distances, but also for a wide variety of lighting purposes or for coupling light in and out in optoelectronic components.
In order to produce portions of glass rods for light guides, it is known for portions first to be produced by scoring and breaking. During this scored breaking, however, under some circumstances end faces that are not parallel, and not perpendicular to the optical axis, may be created. It is also possible under some circumstances for variations in length to occur. The latter is also disadvantageous in particular in the case of shorter light guides in the form of glass rod portions for precision components in which these light guides are used. Under some circumstances, light guides of this kind that are too long or too short are no longer suitable for the intended application, so that there is also the risk in subsequent manufacturing steps of producing rejected items.
However, it is in fact generally possible by means of scored breaking to produce end faces of very good quality which, with great parallelism and planarity of the surface, have only low absorption. It would therefore be desirable to be able to use this method for the production of light guides and at the same time improve the uniformity of the light guides produced.